Sunday, June 02, 2013

Jones is experiencing life outside professional baseball for the first time in more than 20 years after hanging up his cleats last October to end what many consider a Hall of Fame-worthy career.

This will be the first summer Jones isn’t running the bases or fielding ground balls since he was 7. He’s not worried about becoming restless, though.

“A lot of people thought I would struggle with retirement because they thought I was just a baseball player, and you know I’m not just a baseball player,” Jones said. “I’m a dad; I love hanging out with my kids. I love deer hunting and playing golf with my buddies and whatnot, so I’ll be just fine. I’ve got a lot to keep me busy.”

On Saturday, Jones’ business was promoting Major League Bowhunter, a company he helped start that airs TV shows on the Sportsman Channel.

“Hunting has been a big part of our lives; we grew up doing this,” Jones said. “Any time we get a chance to promote the sport of hunting and give the younger generation involved in it (we’ll take it).”

...In March, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman reached out to Jones via the New York media, asking if he’d want to play for the injury-riddled Yankees. Jones declined.

“I had a couple of teams call me and actually offer me their third-base job. It’s a situation where I made the decision not to play anymore and my knees can’t take it anymore,” Jones said. “And while it’s flattering that people still want you, I don’t know how much I have to offer anymore.”

...Because Jones played in what is widely considered the steroid era in baseball, his career numbers could be wrapped up with others who have admitted to cheating.

“It’s not for me to decide. The only thing I can control is the resume I put up,” Jones said.

“At the end of the day I can go home and look in the mirror and be proud of what I did. What everyone else thinks, I can’t really control that stuff.”

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Watching Lance Berkman play a lot of late got me thinking of great switch-hitters. I reckon Jones is the second-greatest of all time, whether you ask the question as one of career, peak, prime, or any permutation and combination thereof. It's not by a huge amount over Berkman for peak/prime, or over Eddie Murray for career, but it's probably not within the range of controversy. Yeah, I think he can look in the mirror and be proud.

Rose, of course, though Rose is an extremely peculiar case. I guess a lineup of peak Pete Roses (1968-69) would hold up OK against a team of peak Murrays or Berkmans, but Rose had only fair power at his very best, and Murray and Berkman (let alone Jones) could hit for average and get on base, too.

Rose's career OPS+ is "only" 118; Murray's is 129, Chipper's 141, Berkman's 145 so far. Rose played longer than anybody else, so that's something to consider, but for much of his later career he wasn't really adding a lot to his resumeé except sheer longevity. (And by that, I don't mean to say what one sometimes hears, that Rose was "merely" an accumulator; he was a great player in his prime and a very good one for a long time, and kept showing up forever. There's no other career remotely like it, of course. And as Misirlou points out, Rose's ability to play different positions well puts him above the pure hitters. Initially I was solely thinking of these guys' hitting.)

Rose's career OPS+ is "only" 118; Murray's is 129, Chipper's 141, Berkman's 145 so far. Rose played longer than anybody else, so that's something to consider, but for much of his later career he wasn't really adding a lot to his resumeé except sheer longevity. (And by that, I don't mean to say what one sometimes hears, that Rose was "merely" an accumulator; he was a great player in his prime and a very good one for a long time, and kept showing up forever. There's no other career remotely like it, of course. And as Misirlou points out, Rose's ability to play different positions well puts him above the pure hitters. Initially I was solely thinking of these guys' hitting.)

Throw out the dross at the end of each's career, and for Rose you have 403 batting runs through 1981, Murray 415 through 1995. But, Rose adds 24 baserunning and DP avoidance runs, while Murray loses 18. Not sure if you want to call that "hitting", but it's certainly offensive value. It's close, but I'd give the nod to Rose.

There is a club near me called Camelot and last month I finally figured out that it has a double meaning.

'Tis a silly place.

Rose, of course, though Rose is an extremely peculiar case. I guess a lineup of peak Pete Roses (1968-69) would hold up OK against a team of peak Murrays or Berkmans, but Rose had only fair power at his very best, and Murray and Berkman (let alone Jones) could hit for average and get on base, too.

IIRC we had a big thread here c. 10 years ago or so about which player would dominate if you cloned him 7 times over and had him play every position (or 8, if you want him to pitch too). Rose's versatility and durability put him near the top IIRC, tho I'd probably put my money on Wagner.

Best switch-hitter? Using only WAR bat misses the context that in some eras, it was harder to accumulate WAR bat than others.
Eddie Murray was the best hitter in his league in his peak/prime. Which is a title Jones, Rose, Berkman never had.
I'd still take Jones #2.

Eddie Murray in his prime had nothing like Barry Bonds, Albert Pujols, or Mike Schmidt.

He did have George Brett and a young Don Mattingly who Murray tied in OPS in 1984 and beat him out by 1 point in OPS+. Berkman had several seasons that had a higher OPS+ than Murray's league leading OPS+.

[9] To generate the shareable link to a report, you need to run the repor and then save the report using the "link url" option under the SHARE link. It prompts you to name the report and then save it, and B-R produces a linkable url, such as for my report: "http://bbref.com/pi/shareit/Avgw2"

You can also run a second query on the result set from your first report. See "Create Season Finder Reports Restricted to a Custom Set of Players" at http://www.baseball-reference.com/blog/archives/10708

Watching Lance Berkman play a lot of late got me thinking of great switch-hitters. I reckon Jones is the second-greatest of all time, whether you ask the question as one of career, peak, prime, or any permutation and combination thereof. It's not by a huge amount over Berkman for peak/prime, or over Eddie Murray for career, but it's probably not within the range of controversy. Yeah, I think he can look in the mirror and be proud.

What's Reggie Smith got to do to get some love?

On Berkman, he's a distant third to Chipper on that list but in 75% of the PA. Granted, he's not likely to make it another 3000 PAs and he'd have to keep the same pace to pass Chipper but it's reasonably close.

But yes Reggie's getting overlooked. Sure, he's behind Rose in career Rbat -- in barely half the PAs. So, for "prime" and using OPS+ to adjust more for era, from ages 24-33:

I picked 24-33 cuz I kinda usually do but that does kinda cherry-pick for Smith. Also Reggie does have the fewest PA of that group -- not the most durable guy -- but in terms of quality as a hitter, he was as good as anybody in the non-Mantle division.

I picked 24-33 cuz I kinda usually do but that does kinda cherry-pick for Smith. Also Reggie does have the fewest PA of that group -- not the most durable guy -- but in terms of quality as a hitter, he was as good as anybody in the non-Mantle division.

Well, Rose's prime was 26-35, and he posts a nice, OBP heavy 135, in 1600 more PA than Smith. I'm not necessarily saying that makes him better, but he certainly is at least right there.